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Bring the wonderful feeling of Christmastime in New York City into your home, no matter where you live, with a Christmas in New York themed tree!

By now, I’m sure your Christmas tree is up or you’re planning on getting yours very, very soon. Today, I wanted to share our merry and bright NYC themed Christmas tree. I love coming up with new themes for our Christmas tree each year. Last year, our Christmas tree had a Narnia/White Witch theme. It was icy white and silver with touches you find in an enchanted forest. I even managed to snag a lion ornament that reminded me of Aslan.

This year, I opted to bring the theme a little closer to home. Being just a train ride away from the city, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing Christmas in New York on multiple occasions.

I’ve been lucky enough to see the window displays, visit the tree at Rockefeller Center, and I’ve seen the Radio City Christmas Spectacular more than once. It’s my favorite time of year to be in New York. If it’s even possible, the city seems even more animated and alive during Christmastime. I wanted to bring some of that magic into home this holiday.

This year, I did my very best to make our Christmas tree Christmas in New York themed. Since there’s so much to see and do in the city, it was almost “anything goes” when it came to this theme. But I wanted to emphasize the holiday feel with classic New York City symbolism.

This theme kind of got started because of this ornament. I picked it up after the Christmas Spectacular a couple years ago. It’s my first and only ornament from the city, but I love it. Especially the toy soldiers at the bottom! It’s one of my favorite parts of the show.

If you haven’t seen the Christmas Spectacular, it’s definitely worth seeing at least once! I’d love to go again simply because each year it seems like they bring new technology into the show. This year, they’ve added drones!

I found this NYC ornament this year at a craft store. It’s just obvious. If anyone ever questions the theme of our tree, we just have to point to that ornament!

The fun part about this tree is that I got to add some foodie ornaments to it! You can’t wander the city without a coffee cup in hand. The first time I had a peppermint mocha from Starbucks was in the city. It may have been the first time I discovered the holiday menu at Starbucks!

And, of course, you’ve got to have a big slice of New York slice pizza. Hot and cheesy, there’s nothing better! I have a bunch of other foodie ornaments on our tree including doughnuts, a hot dog, a burger, a pretzel, ice cream, and a cupcake. They’re all great bites you can find in the city!

I have a couple alcoholic beverages hanging from the tree, as well. There’s a glass of white wine and this Cosmopolitan. Not only is it a delicious cocktail, it quickly became the signature drink of Sex and the City, one of my all-time favorite shows!

No matter how many times I go into the city, I still feel like a tourist. There’s just always something new to discover! So I added a camera ornament to give a nod to the crazy amount of tourism happening in NYC.

I’ve had this ice skate ornament for a few years now. It fits the theme. I’ve never been skating in Rockefeller Center (mainly because I’m not a big fan of ice skating). But I’ve been to the rink and I’ve seen the tree. It was pretty, but the year I went, I remember being really underwhelmed by it! Still, it’s a Christmas classic when you go into the city during the holidays.

This last ornament I’m sharing has some big NYC symbolism that might not seem so obvious at first. My little disco ball represents the NYE ball that drops in Times Square. We leave our tree up until the first week of January. So it’s fitting to have a little send-off to this year.

So what do you think? How did I do with our Christmas in New York tree? I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. And, guys, I’ve actually started thinking about next year’s theme already, if you can believe it!

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Do you remember how excited I was for our kitchen makeover? Well, I was probably ten times more excited for our bedroom makeover! I moved into my husband’s fully furnished house after a few years of dating. It was like the quintessential bachelor pad. Leather couches, dark, masculine furniture, and as soon as he put a ring on it, I knew I had to add a few feminine touches of my own.

The bedroom furniture always bothered me. It wasn’t my style. Think: Uncle Jesse’s 1980’s bedroom set from Full House. Oh, how I wish I were kidding! But it was a sturdy set and held a lot of memories for us. It’s where my husband asked me to move in. It’s where he proposed. But with each year, it got more and more outdated and worn out. So when we decided to redo two rooms in our house this year, we decided on the kitchen and the bedroom.

I don’t have any before pics this time around, but trust me on this one, guys. It was a total time warp! The walls got a fresh coat of paint. We went from beige to Behr Paint’s Muted Sage. It’s a subtle olive green color that’s neutral enough without being boring!

We unintentionally ended up with another rustic, farmhouse-inspired room. Initially, we were just looking for solid wood furniture that was simple, but classic. We’re talking no frills, just nicer than what we started with. So we went to Raymour & Flanigan’s showroom. Our choices were plentiful and our top choice changed many times!

We didn’t order anything during our first visit. Instead, we did a little research, visited another showroom, and ended up back at Raymour & Flanigan. Another few times around the showroom finally had us settled on two bedroom sets.

The funny part is, neither one of these sets was in our top choices during our first visit. Both were modern, rustic sets with a slightly distressed finish that we somehow must have passed over the last time we were there. We kept going back to one of the sets and ultimately decided on the Ashlyn bedroom set. I couldn’t be happier with our choice!

Let’s start with the dresser. I absolutely love the details! It has a great, distressed look to it. The sides of the dresser have a plank finish to them. I love the mixed pewter drawer pulls and large mirror. The drawers, themselves, are a good size. I was able to comfortably transfer all of my clothes from our old dresser into the new dresser with room! The drawers are sturdy, but easy to open and close.

I was also happy to finally have a place to put a glass lantern I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby! It matches our bedroom colors and adds a nice touch to the room without being “too much.”

Since I have so much drawer space in the new dresser, my husband is storing some of his clothes in the nightstand. It has the same combo of pewter drawer pulls and detail on the side. Our old lamp worked with our new set, but I wanted something a little more modern. I found this geometric style map on Amazon. It’s the perfect size for our nightstand. The style is simple, but a lot trendier!

Last, but not least, the bed! Our old bed had a rather large headboard in width. Our new bed has a tall headboard, which makes it seem so much bigger to me! It’s another piece in this bedroom set that has great detail to it. We now have a footboard, which is new to us, too. I thought it would be a lot harder to make the bed with a footboard, but it’s not!

Our old comforter set looked nice with the bedroom, but go big or go home. Right? So while I was shopping Prime Day, I got us a new, floral comforter set and the softest bed sheets ever! I’m not even kidding! If you need new, affordable sheets, check these out. They’re so nice! It doesn’t hurt to have them on a brand new, super comfy mattress either!

I keep saying that our bedroom is now our “grown up” bedroom. It just looks so much nicer! Now, we can give our bank account a well-deserved break. Our two rooms are finished, so all that’s left to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy them!

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Create a personalized Star Map and have a special milestone in your life written in the stars! Customize your own map with memorable date and location for a truly unique gift and art piece!

Every year for our wedding anniversary, I try to come up with a traditional anniversary gift-inspired DIY project for my husband and I to do together. This year, I was at a complete and total loss. The sixth wedding anniversary is the iron anniversary. That one’s a little tricky, if you ask me! Maybe we’ll do better next year with copper and wool (insert eyeroll here)!

So instead of creating a new DIY project together, this year I opted for a really unique gift for our home. As you know, we’ve been working on a few home updates this summer. Last month, we finished giving the kitchen a farmhouse-inspired update and we’re currently in the midst of updating our bedroom. So the timing was pretty perfect for this gift to arrive!

CREATE YOUR OWN CUSTOM STAR MAP FOR A SPECIAL DAY IN YOUR LIFE!

I’ve always been into astronomy, staring up at the night sky, and pointing out constellations. So when Modern Map Art approached me to create a custom Star Map, I jumped at the chance! I had actually been looking into getting one of these personalized maps for our home. It’s a great way to commemorate a special date in your life, like a wedding anniversary!

We use astronomical software used by planetariums that generates the actual night sky at a particular time and place. It looks exactly what you would see with your eyes, binoculars, or a telescope. We use a database with hundreds of thousands of stars. With our software, you’ll be able to create a one-of-a-kind print that shows off a special moment in your life — when a child was born, when you said “I Do”, when you got engaged, or any other memorable time. We print on both paper and canvas depending on what you’d like to have on your wall. Give it a try! – Modern Map Art

It’s super easy to create your own personalized map, too! Just click on the CUSTOM STAR MAP link. That brings you to a form where you can choose everything from the type of map you want, the location and date, size, color, font, and even a personalized message. Since I got a map of our wedding date, I thought “To the Moon & Back” was fitting! You can even preview what your Star Map will look like as you customize it!

I chose to make a 24 x 36″ poster. Once my poster arrived, I got a nice frame for it. When we’re done with our bedroom update, I hope to find a spot for it in that room. For now, it doesn’t look too bad leaning against a wall in our dining room! It’s definitely a great conversation piece and perfect gift for any of life’s special milestones and memories! I love the way it turned out! For more information visit the Modern Map Art website and start creating your very own, personalized Star Map!

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Last week, my husband and I completed our biggest DIY project together so far. Our 1950’s kitchen needed a serious update. If you have an older house with older floors and whatnot, then you know how hard it is to make it look nice all the time. That was our kitchen. No matter how hard I mopped, scrubbed, or bleached, it still looked dirty. Not because it was dirty, but because it was old.

The thing that bothered me most about our kitchen was the floor. It was an old linoleum floor with dings, dents, and a yellowed area that just wouldn’t budge. My last resort at attempting to make the floor look okay was buying a L-shaped rug to hide most of it.

We finally agreed that the time was right this summer to give our kitchen a well-deserved modern update. Our inspiration was the ever popular farmhouse trend with a touch of modern minimalism.

So we started looking for floors and fell in love with the Pergo Outlast+ Southport Oak flooring. It’s got a cool weathered, textured look to it that, as my husband describes it, “is bad ass.” It’s lighter in color and worked well with our kitchen. The best part was, we didn’t have to rip up our old floor to put it down. We laid it down right on top of it.

Even though we were putting new flooring down, we were keeping our original cabinets. We gave them a fresh coat of paint in BEHR Premium Plus Ultra Pure White and added new hardware. Our old cabinet pulls were starting to rust and I wanted a simpler design.

After the cabinets were painted completely white and the floor was put down, my husband added molding to the bottom of the cabinets as well as the rest of the room. The bottom of the cabinets were formerly painted gray. This transition gives them a cleaner look and a little extra detail.

We had a wood, swinging door in the entryway to the kitchen. That was taken down. Just simply taking that door down made our dining room and kitchen seem bigger and brighter!

Our walls were previously blueish-gray in color that we painted over with BEHR Fashion Gray. It’s a gorgeous, classic gray color that’s a little darker than what we had, but I love it! Since everything else was getting updated, I gave my upcycled window chalkboard a fresh coat of paint, too!

It took us five days to finish our kitchen update. And that’s without changing any of the cabinets, counter tops, or hooking up new appliances! Most of it was painting and cutting and installing the new trim. My husband did some excellent work on our kitchen! It makes me so happy when I walk in there now!

I posted some of the process and finished sneak peeks on my Instagram Story and got a few questions about the flooring. It’s laminate flooring that comes in planks. The particular style we wanted was purchased through Home Depot, but not carried in store. The planks snap together with an installation tool and took an afternoon to put in. My husband and father-in-law put the floor together. They said it took a little time to figure out at first, but once they got going, it was easy!

The pictures definitely do not do this floor, and our entire kitchen, justice! I wasn’t fond of our blue counters before, but now I love how they bring the room together with a pretty pop of color! They add a little charm to the simple, farmhouse style we were going for, too! Next up, we’ll up giving our bedroom an update with a fresh coat of paint and new furniture!